The effort to register the Taiwan Beer brand name as a trademark in China has been thwarted by political intrigue, a Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL,
"I believe there has been political interference regarding the approval of the brand name," said TTL chairman Morgan Hwang (黃營杉) at a press conference yesterday, which was called in response to a statement released by China's Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday.
Li Weiyi (
Despite Li's claim that geographical names can not be included in trademarks, there are a number of Chinese products that include geographical names, such as Tsingtao Beer (
Hwang said that the Taiwan Beer name has been in use since 1946, and has become a notable and distinctive brand name.
"Both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] should set aside ideology and political motivations to promote industrial and commercial exchanges," Hwang said.
The state-run company's predeccessor, the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau (菸酒公賣局) began the registration process of taiwan pichiu (台灣啤酒), or Taiwan Beer, in Beijing in 1999, before the company was corporatized and changed its name in July 2002.
The trademark registration was turned down twice.
In December 2002, TTL re-applied to register its trademark, with no result until Wednesday.
At the same time, the company also applied to register its product under another name: tai pi (
"The matter has not yet been finalized," Hwang said, adding that the company will continue its legal efforts to garner Beijing's approval.
Hwang also called on China to abide by the WTO's rule of "national treatment" and open its market to Taiwan Beer.
National treatment indicates that imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally -- at least once the foreign goods have entered the market. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services and to foreign and local trademarks, copyrights and patents.
Taiwan joined the the global trade body on Jan. 1, 2002, and China's imported beer brands quickly snatched an 8.4-percent share of the market that year, while Taiwan Beer dropped to its lowest-ever market share of 74.1 percent.
With the launch of Gold Medal Taiwan Beer in April last year, TTL has regained its market presence to achieve an 80 percent slice of the market this year, while Chinese beers have dropped to 4.8 percent.
Hwang said, until last month, 156 million bottles of 13 Chinese beer brands have been imported into the nation while Taiwan Beer's plan to enter the Chinese market remains stalled.
If Taiwan Beer is allowed to hit the Chinese market, Hwang said, TTL might form strategic alliances with Chinese companies, which will allow the company access to local know-how and authorization to manufacture Taiwan Beer in China.
"We hope that Chinese people can also enjoy our internationally-renowned beer," he said.
If the proposal is turned down again, Hwang said TTL would apply for negotiations to be conducted by the Mainland Affairs Council, before filing a protest with the WTO.
"Fair competition is conducive to cross-strait development," he said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS